When we first signed up for this transatlantic voyage, Vision of the Seas was slated to make a rather exciting (to us, anyway) call into Lerwick, Scotland, located in the Shetlands. Ursula and I were really up for this one, as we’d already done a self-driving tour of Scotland many years before. We even primed ourselves by binge watching the British television series Shetland, starring Douglas Henshaw. Alas, Royal Caribbean cancelled that destination on the pretext that the port was unable to handle the ship, even though the new docking facilities were completed quite some time beforehand. Instead, we found ourselves steaming toward Invergordon, and Ursula had us lined up for a bus tour inland toward Inverness and Loch Ness (yep . . . I got a picture of a strange creature which you’ll see on this week’s Fun Photo Friday). Anyway, our bus headed inland, and our first stop was to the ruins of Beauly Priory near the town of Beauly.

Thus, Beauly Priory spent the last 124 years of its monasterial existence in the Cistercian Order, until October 20, 1634, when it was disestablished and its lands turned over to John Maxwell, the Bishop of Ross (1633-1638). So much for the history lesson. Here are more images of this historic ruin and its grounds (click on any image to enlarge and bring up today’s slide show):